Free hiker breakfast in Franklin

Appalachian Trail hikers can get a free breakfast in Franklin through April 11. First Baptist Church in Franklin has offered this four-week period of “trail magic” for eight years, last year feeding 595 hikers from 44 states and seven countries.

In addition to breakfast, hikers can have their picture taken at the church and mailed to a friend or loved one, along with a note from the hiker. Meals are served from 7 to 8 a.m. daily with a free shuttle picking hikers up from the Budget and Sapphire inns.

Sponsor a hiker, fight local hunger

Fight hunger in Jackson County by sponsoring Andrew Smith’s Appalachian Trail hike this year, which he hopes to finish just in time for his 65th birthday.

Smith, a.k.a. Racewalker, will start his trail journey at Springer Mountain, Ga., in April and hopes to reach Mt. Katahdin in Maine by his September birthday. Smith has pledged $1 to The Community Table, a soup kitchen in Sylva, for each mile of the 2,180-mile trail he completes and challenges others to make their own pledges. Sponsoring Smith at a penny per mile costs just $21.80, a dime brings it up to $218 and a dollar per mile garners $2,180 to fight hunger in Jackson County.

The Naturalist's Corner

My family and I made a quick run up to Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway around dusk last Sunday (July 19) to get a peek at some celestial luminaries. Venus and Jupiter joined the waxing crescent moon on the western horizon. They danced and played hide and seek amidst layered clouds whose purple backs touched the night while their bellies bathed in the last yellow and orange rays of the sun falling over the western horizon. It was a beautiful, tranquil setting.